Monday, November 30, 2009

Was that window open?

Belated Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are just past Turkey Day and a mere 3 and a half weeks away from Christmas. My, how time flies. We had a nice Thanksgiving here. Again, a very low key day. No dressing up, no good china, just enough food. The turkey was picture perfect, very tasty, and just the right size. Minimal leftovers for the first time ever, woohoo! I think we were all so excited to get to Friday that Thursday was just another day. Yep, we're weird like that.
Friday arrived, crisp and cool. Very cool. Remember, this is Florida, so a 40 degree temp is only cold when it was 75 or 80 earlier the same day. At 40 degrees I need a jacket, preferably with a hood. Gloves would be smart, since my hands do not do well in cold temps, but unfortunately I don't have any. So anyway, we load up for the 150 mile drive to Ft. Meade and the impending Ghost Hunt. No, we are not professional ghost hunters. No, we are not auditioning for Paranormal State. No, we aren't off our rockers. We are functionally dysfunctional people who scare ourselves silly, ghost hunting is right up our alley.
Laurie's BFF Stacy managed to make arrangements with a Ft. Meade business owner who says his property is haunted, and was more than willing to give us a key, and a tour, so we could ghost hunt after dark. He had 2 parting comments for us: 1 - if you show up here after dark you're more of a woman than I am a man, and 2-if I hear an ambulance heading out here I'm leaving town, and you're trespassing. Great, I feel MUCH better now. The business is an old munitions plant, and a manufacturing site. It was severely damaged in Hurricane Charley. Some of the buildings date back to the 1800s and some are just dilapidated offices. The place was used in commercials a few years back to promote Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. Ugh! There is also an old Mercedes tucked away in one of the bays that the previous owner used to commit suicide in, method unknown. His family couldn't part with the car so they stored it out there. Well, we all arrive after dark and it's creepy as hell. Our family has never been ghost hunting so we had to learn the ground rules. Make lots of noise, if you're Jordan - fall through the floor almost to the floor below, shriek and laugh and act like a dork. Check, I've got that. (BTW, only Jordan's pride was injured in his fall).

The hole we pulled Jordan from.

Well we tromp through, take lots of pictures in total darkness, and then approach the car. The car is coated in really thick dust, it's fairly certain no one has touched it in a long time, so of course several of us wipe the dust off and try to peek in the windows. RIP after we gawk sir.

Load up and move along...first stop an old bridge in the middle of nowhere darkness. What the hell do we do here? Oh, get out of the vehicle, walk to the bridge, take lots of random pictures in total darkness, load back up and head to another bridge. Jordan & Phoenix & "friend".

Repeat this action at two additional bridge stops, and then head to a very, very old cemetery. The church buildings here are in very good shape, but apparently no longer used as a church. The cemetery itself dates back to the 1700s. The older grave sites are behind a wall of some sort and we did not venture in. We really didn't venture in to the cemetery at all. A few of us entered in only one or two rows, and then headed back toward the car.

Stacy's son decided to videotape the windows of one of the buildings the entire time we were there. He was waiting to see if something would happen. The skeptics among you would scoff at what we have on video, but we were there, and we know. Phoenix not only captured the image of someone walking through the building, past the window, but we all saw the windows when we got there, and they were closed. As we were all rapidly heading back to the car after the figure walked past, someone asked, "hey, was that window open?" No was the resounding reply, and then I shined the maglite across the window, and I'll be damned if it wasn't open. OPEN. OPEN. Yep, jump in the cars, race toward home, laughing and wondering and freezing. Repeatedly asking if that window was open. Repeatedly asking "did you see that guy walk by?" Disbelieving, skeptical and convinced. We have pictures, and video. We know what we saw and heard. We know who took what photos and from where. We know and we believe. And we're still shaking our heads, asking the questions, and totally amazed at what we saw. Ghost hunting was a blast! I can't wait to do it again...but no more suicide cars for me. Nope, not doing that again. Here's some photos. I'll explain if you have questions.
Happy Merry In=between.

2 comments:

Yep yep yep, can't wait to do it again. It's so much fun scaring yourself silly. These were good ghost though, they just peeked out at us and didn't scare us....Although, for a second or two I thought one had Jordan, then realized it was only gravity and rotten wood that got it.